For northwest corridor residents seeking a fire-breathing, take-no-prisoners champion of Denver-to-Longmont rail service as their next representative to the Regional Transportation District's Board of Directors, Chuck Sisk will likely disappoint.

The former long-time Louisville mayor, chosen on Feb. 5 by the Boulder County commissioners to fill the District O seat vacated by John Tayer, is a self-described "regionalist" who prefers a practical and measured approach to tackling some of the most nettlesome issues in the corridor, chief among them a long-promised commuter rail line that has fallen victim to poor planning and tight budgets.

"It's a matter of listening to people and respecting people," said Sisk, who is one of six new faces on RTD's 15-member board. "I'm not going to embarrass my fellow board members or RTD staff."

He said RTD has to put together a solid financial plan for train service that will hold sway with voters throughout the entire seven-county transportation district if the agency hopes for success in raising new tax revenues for the line. First and foremost will be the results from a 13-month, $2 million Northwest Area Mobility Study, which kicked off just last week with the hiring of HNTB Corp. to lead the analysis of what to do transit-wise in the corridor.

"I am still a big proponent of rail but if we're going to go back to the voters, we need to come back with an economic analysis that will get a yes vote from them," Sisk said. "And it won't just be a vote in the north area -- so we have to be pragmatic about this."

Residents in the northwest quadrant rose up in protest last year, after BNSF Railway presented cost estimates to RTD that were much higher -- $1.7 billion -- than what the agency thought it would need -- $894 million -- to build a 41-mile rail segment between Denver and Longmont. That put the future of Northwest Rail, which would share BNSF's tracks with the railroad giant, in question.

Voters approved the line in 2004 as part of RTD's FasTracks initiative, which promises 122 miles of new commuter and light rail throughout the Denver metro area.

'Exceptional skill set'

Louisville Mayor Bob Muckle hasn't been shy about his disappointment over the Northwest Rail debacle, reminding RTD that it needs to deliver what it promised in terms of rail service more than eight years ago. He's confident his predecessor in the mayor's chair has the same sensibilities, especially because of his intimate familiarity with the city's infrastructure and transportation needs.

"One thing that I think he will be a strong advocate of is holding RTD to its promises," Muckle said.

But the mayor recognizes that Sisk is no longer representing just 20,000 residents in Louisville but 200,000 people across Boulder, Louisville, Superior, Longmont, Nederland and Lyons. Sisk's previous work on U.S. 36 issues and FasTracks during his 20 years on the Louisville City Council, which ended in November 2011, will serve the northern metro area well, Muckle said.

"He has an exceptional skill set for that job," Muckle said. "He's well known throughout the region and has a lot of contacts from his days serving on the Metro Mayors Caucus and the U.S. 36 Mayors/Commissioners Coalition."

Boulder Mayor Matt Appelbaum said Sisk will undoubtedly face difficulty trying to get agreement from 14 other directors representing distinctly different portions of the metro area. But he can't think of anyone who could better bridge the ideological and political schisms than Sisk. The affable and good-natured attorney, Appelbaum said, has the coalition-building skills to get things moving in the right direction.

One thing Sisk, 68, is insistent about is that the northwest corridor won't have to wait until 2042 for a transportation solution. That's how long transportation officials say it will take before a train arrives in the corridor if no new taxes are raised over the next three decades.

"No, no, no," Sisk said, waving his arms animatedly as he knocked back a black coffee at a café near his Boulder law office earlier this week. "That is unacceptable to me -- we have to do much better than that."

Sisk said whether the solution includes a train, implementation of a world-class bus rapid transit system, or a combination of the two is not something he is going to get caught up in ahead of the completion early next year of the mobility study. But he said something will be in place long before 2042.

"We're in it for the long term -- we're in it to build a seven-county system," Sisk said. "And yes, we haven't gotten our fair share. But I'm confident we will get our fair share."

Tayer, who served District O for six years before stepping down earlier this month to take over as head of the Boulder Chamber of Commerce, said Sisk is ideally suited to take on the challenges of working on the RTD board.

"Chuck knows how to work in challenging political environments," he said. "I know he's a clear thinker and he will be a creative member of the discussion."

Sisk, who earns $1,000 a month as an RTD director, is already making it clear that he plans to run for his position in 2014, when he is next required to defend his seat. The solutions to FasTracks and other complex transportation challenges in the metro area, he said, cannot be found in a single term.

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